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Shorts Presentation: AN UNFAMILIAR TALE

Canada, Taiwan, USA2022-2024TRT: 87 minVarious languages

Family dynamics are complicated. No matter how intimately familiar kin can feel, there's room for surprise to the point where we wonder if we even knew them at all. Which stories and emotions do we hold inside, and which are we ready to share?

For: active listeners; anyone ready for change, healing, and acceptance; multigenerational audiences

EASTER EPIC

Alejandro Yoshizawa & Y-Dang Troeung Profile Image

Canada202416 MinEnglishAvailable Online, Drama

On the evening of the 1987 "Easter Epic" hockey playoff game, a young Cambodian girl grapples with her Canadian identity in a small town in rural Ontario.

IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

Alejandro Yoshizawa & Y-Dang Troeung

Alejandro Yoshizawa is a Vancouver-based filmmaker specializing in grassroots and marginalized people’s stories, oral histories, and community documentaries.

Y-Dang Troeung (張依蘭) (ទ្រឿងអ៊ីដាង) was a writer and scholar based in Vancouver, who passed away in fall 2022 of pancreatic cancer.

15 WAYS MY DAD ALMOST DIED

Sura Mallouh Profile Image

Canada202419 MinEnglishAvailable Online

For her next standup routine, Filipino Canadian comedian Alia Rasul reconnects with her dad to mine stories about the ridiculous ways he almost died — but it unexpectedly turns into a record-scratch moment.

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

ONLINE : This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

Sura Mallouh

Sura Mallouh is a Palestinian Canadian filmmaker. In 2021, she was listed as a 40 under 40 documentary star to watch, co-presented by HBO Documentary Films and DOCNYC. Mallouh’s work amplifies underrepresented stories.

LOST IN A WALTZ

*Ji-Tian Li Profile Image

Taiwan20239 MinMandarinAnimation, Available Online, Family-friendly

Returning to a house that holds nothing, a mother misses her own mother.

IN PERSON & ONLINE: this film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

*Ji-Tian Li

Ji-Tian Li graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts and participated in the AVU exchange program in Prague in 2021, focusing on materials and installations. She is now a full-time artist exploring space through gardening, ceramics, painting, music, and performance.

BITA JOON

*Sara Boutorabi Profile Image

USA202414 MinFarsi, EnglishAvailable Online, Drama, Experimental, Romance

On a seemingly prosaic day, Bita, an Iranian woman with terminal cancer, comes to grips with her changing relationships with her family as life transforms and slips away.

This film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

*Sara Boutorabi

Sara Boutorabi is an Iranian American filmmaker based in New York City, and originally from California. She graduated from UC Berkeley and is an MFA candidate in screenwriting at Columbia University.

ME AND MY TEETH

Anna Quon Profile Image

Canada202315 MinEnglishAvailable Online, Documentary, Experimental

Follow filmmaker Anna Quon as she journeys from her childhood conviction regarding her own specialness, symbolized by her “perfect” teeth, into the throes of mental unwellness.

 IN PERSON & ONLINE: this film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

Anna Quon

Mad, mixed-race, and middle-aged, Anna Quon is a novellist, poem-film maker, and current poet laureate for Halifax. She works in mental health as a creativity connector for a local not-for-profit.

SWEETWATER AQUARIUM

Yvonne Zhang Profile Image

USA202414 MinEnglish, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin2slgbtq+, Available Online, Drama, Experimental

Today is Parents' Day at the Sweetwater Boarding School for English Learners. When A, B, C, and D discover that none of their families are coming, they decide to hatch a different plan.

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

ONLINE : This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

Director Bio

Yvonne Zhang

Yvonne Zhang is a British Chinese director and writer who uses fables, dream logic, and digital worlds to explore the diasporic experience.

16 Nov, 2024 12:00 pm

TIFF Lightbox C4

Rating

PG

IN-CINEMA TICKETS

DIGITAL SHORTS
All shorts are available online via a Shorts VOD Pass. Valid from 10AM on Monday, Nov 18 thru 11:59PM on Sunday, Nov 24, 2024.

Shorts VOD Pass

Accessibility

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Wheelchair/Step-Free Seating Available icon

This programme is presented with a mix of open captions, English subtitles, and no captions.  Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.

With Support From

Community Supporter

Toronto Arab Film

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